Turnaround Artist : Coach Kristy Loesener Has Put El Camino on Winning Track : JC basketball: Last season the Warriors made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. This season they may be even better.

Kristy Loesener has a strange attraction for struggling women’s basketball programs. She likes the challenge of turning them around--and perhaps the glory that comes with such an accomplishment.

At El Camino College, the second-year head coach has already experienced some of that glory. Loesener has brought immediate success to a program that went 19-57 in three years under former Coach Jackie Lott.

In 1988 the Warriors had a dismal 3-11 conference record. The year before, they finished at the cellar with an 0-14 league mark. That, among other things, was what attracted Loesener to El Camino.

“I enjoy the challenge,” she said. “I enjoy teaching fundamentals, and I knew immediately that this was a great opportunity to do that. There’s also a lot of talent in this area.”

Last season the 31-year old South Bay native capitalized on the talent pool, recruiting eight of the team’s 10 players in only three months.

Loesener had no choice but to rebuild in a hurry. When she was hired in May, 1988, she inherited only two athletes, guard Julie Porter and center Melinda Brown, from her predecessor.

The new coach and the new personnel clicked. El Camino finished 16-7 and made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.

Porter, a Bishop Montgomery High graduate, said playing for two coaches in two years wasn’t easy. But she said Loesener helped the team by recruiting better athletes and developing them.

“The biggest difference in playing for Kristy is that we were more prepared,” said Porter, now a guard at Dominican College in San Rafael. “We knew about the other team. We knew what they liked to do--fast-break, run a lot, whatever. That made a difference.”

Dave Shannon, assistant athletic director at El Camino, said Loesener has brought unprecedented stability to the women’s basketball program.

“We’ve kind of struggled until we got Kristy,” Shannon said. “She’s very confident, and she’s very self-assured. We expected this (success), and I think she expected it.”

This season looks even better for Loesener, a Torrance resident who spent her adolescence playing basketball for longtime Coach Sylvia Holly at Mira Costa High.

The Warriors are third in the eight-member South Coast Conference with a 6-3 record and are 16-7 overall, despite the absence of top scorer Kim Bly, who suffered a knee injury Jan. 18 and is expected to miss the rest of the regular season.

El Camino is known for its fast-paced offense, a Loesener specialty. Even without Bly, the back court is speedy, with guards Lynn Sherman and Tammy Booker. The front line includes 6-foot center Cheri Bullet and 5-9 forward Paula Dody.

“Her style fits the players,” said Cerritos College Coach Karen Peterson, whose team is second in the conference. “We played hard to beat them (68-58 on Jan. 10). It was a great college game.”

Peterson, the Falcons’ coach for the last eight years, said El Camino’s program has taken a turn in the right direction.

“There was dissension before,” Peterson said. “They had a hard time keeping players. Kristy’s changed it around real quick. I think she’s really done a nice job over there. They got a lot better last year, and this year they’re right up there.”

Loesener’s secret is discipline and communication. Her players must be ready to work hard, she said. “I don’t let people quit.”

But she enforces that discipline in an unusual way. Loesener isn’t known for the aggressive behavior common among coaches. She doesn’t yell or degrade her players like a drill sergeant. She’s calm during practices and addresses her athletes in a soft, mellow tone.

Bly, an all-league player at Hawthorne High, says Loesener is the most laid-back coach she’s dealt with.

“She allows us to speak to her as a person as well as a coach,” Bly said. “Players like to work for her because she allows us to play with what we have. She lets us perform in our own way, and she’s a great communicator.”

With those ingredients, Loesener, a health teacher at El Camino, believes she can make contenders out of struggling programs. She tried it twice before, at Glendale College and the University of Redlands, but didn’t stay long enough to make a complete turnaround.

At Redlands, a Division III school, Loesener’s teams went 10-35 in 1987 and 1988. At Glendale, in 1982-84, she compiled an 18-29 record.

In between, Loesener was an assistant coach at Utah State University (1984-86), where she earned a master’s degree in physical education with an emphasis in sports psychology.

As a player, Loesener, a 5-foot-5 guard at Mira Costa, competed for two seasons at Santa Monica College and one season at Cal State Northridge before a knee injury in 1979 ended her career.

She got a bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of Utah and made her coaching debut at University High in West Los Angeles in 1981.

A full-time teaching position and the challenge of making the Warriors a powerhouse in junior college basketball attracted Loesener to El Camino. She added that it feels good to come home to the South Bay.

Speaking of home, Loesener got the team a new and better one. Since she’s been at El Camino, the women play and practice in the North Gym, also home to the men’s team. Before, the women were stuck in the smaller South Gym.

“This is the main gym,” Loesener said during practice, “and we’re the main team, so we want to play in the main gym. Sometimes I get snide comments like ‘Go play in the girls’ gym.’ ”

But derisive remarks don’t bother Loesener, and they can’t stop her from attempting another lift job. Her motto is “pursuit of excellence,” whatever the cost.